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Internet swindler nabbed

Date Posted: 2002-04-05

Police arrested a 25-year old Okinawa City man who is suspected of swindling money from people through his homepage by promising to sell them difficult to get concert tickets and cheap airline tickets. Okinawa City Police arrested Yoshiyuki Matsue after receiving complaints from people who had responded to his advertisements for tickets to a concert of a popular group “Morning Musume.” Investigators say that Matsue never had any tickets but he managed to collect about ¥1 million from fans who wanted to buy tickets to the concert. He allegedly claimed that he had a friend working for the promotion company organizing the concert. Investigators say that Matsue had run his swindle since January, and they had about 10 people who had filed a complaint. However, when questioned, Matsue confessed that he had gotten money from at least 50 people, totaling about one million. Police also say that the same man was arrested before when he advertised non-existing cheap airline tickets and received ¥230,000 from unsuspecting customers.